The whole point of this blog is to find out and meticulously document all the different ways to earn $1 Million in 10 years by blogging (or die trying).
Right now, I’m at the very beginning, so if you somehow discover this blog in summer of 2021, you’ll have a rare opportunity to watch this ridiculous project unfold in real-time.
However, even if you got here a few years later, I believe that you can still benefit from all the content I managed to collect over time. Most importantly, you’ll get the unbiased account of what I did, what worked and what did not work.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links for products I use and love. This means if you click on such a link and take action (like subscribe, or make a purchase), I may receive some coffee money at no extra cost to you. This helps me creating more content free of charge to you. And, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks for your support!
How I Plan to Earn $1 Million by Blogging (7 Steps to Kick Start my Million-Dollar Blogging Business) Click To TweetIn this totally honest article, I want to share the initial steps I will take to kick start this blog and embark on my journey from nothing to a million-dollar blogging business.
So, you really think you can earn $1 Million just by blogging?
Yes and no. Not just by blogging, but I strongly believe, that blogging is the best starting point. So, I just want to make sure that I set this blog up properly before focusing on other ways to make money online.
7 Steps to Kick Start Million-Dollar Blogging Business
- Choose the right audience
- Register a domain name
- Choose the right publishing platform
- Choose the right web hosting
- Select the right theme
- Install the most important plugins
- Start creating content
1. Choose the right audience
This is the most difficult step, but it’s also one of the most important:
- You need to find out who’s your content for.
- You need to specify your perfect reader.
- You need to find out what bugs him and how can you help him solve his problems.
Without this important knowledge, you’ll have a hard time crafting the right content for your readers.
ConvertKit has a great article on this topic, but if you’re short on time, here’s a quick version.
First thing to remember is that “if you want a successful blog, you need the right audience”.
This needs to be a group of readers that are:
- niched down
- loyal
- dedicated
- excited
ConverKit came with these four steps you need to take to figure out who represents your ideal blog reader:
- Make a list of people
- Make a list of attributes you want in a blog reader
- Compare the list
- Pick a name
Based on what ConvertKit suggests, here’s my process of choosing the right audience for this blog.
1. Make a list of people
This is all about writing down the list of at least ten people who you would love to read your blog. Ok, that’s easy enough for me. I have a few candidates right here in front of me.
2. Make a list of attributes you want in a blog reader
I want people who:
- are really interested in making money online,
- who don’t mind working every single day on their blog,
- who are fine with the idea, that they won’t get anything from this hard work for the first five years,
- who are so dedicated that nothing will stop them.
3. Compare the lists
This is easy again because none of the people from the first list match the attributes from the second list. Fine, so I don’t personally know anyone (except for me :)), but I believe they are out there somewhere.
4. Pick a name
That’s hard, but you don’t need a real person here. Just look around your Facebook friends or LinkedIn connections, or somebody you follow. In my case, I picked Adam Enfroy who fits the bill perfectly.
So, this is my ideal reader who I should create my blog for. Not Adam Enfroy, that successful blogger, but who he once was before he started his amazing online career.
Now’s your turn!
Can you pick a person who will be your ideal reader with the help of these four steps? Let me know in the comments!
2. Register a domain name
What is the right domain name? That’s a million-dollar question by itself. The short answer is that you absolutely need your own domain name.
Don’t build your blog on some third-level name like myweb.blogspot.com or peter.wordpress.com. Always register your own domain name.
What TLD is the best?
Does it matter what extension (TLD = Top Level Domain) will you choose? Not really since it won’t improve your SEO anyway, but when you start your domain name hunt, try to get the .com extension as it’s still somehow regarded as the go-to TLD for commercial purposes – hence the name.
Also consider that this is one of the oldest TLDs, so when you promote your business, people still tend to try finding it online by adding the .com to its name.
If .com is not available, .net is a good neutral choice. Then it depends on the content you’re going to publish. If you’re going to write about software, then .io could be a good fit.
How about keywords?
Keywords in the name are not as important as they used to be, but if you’re lucky to catch one, it won’t hurt your rankings. Make sure that the keyword corresponds with the content of your blog and ideally, it should be concise and descriptive.
I was quite lucky with my domains as they tell the story of the blogs without ever seeing a single page. Unless you already read my story, can you guess what these websites are about?
Why I chose millionaireport.com?
First, I wanted the .com domain as I still consider it the best and most suitable TLD for blogs. I also wanted a keyword that represents the content of the blog in the domain name.
I didn’t like how millionairereport with double “re” looked like, so I opted for this word play and bought millionaireport.com. I still can’t understand how this nice name was available, but when I saw it, I grabbed it right away.
What registrar did I choose?
I like Porkbun for their competitive prices, ease of use and premium features like private WHOIS included. Over time I moved almost all of my domains to Porkbun and I couldn’t be happier.
When it comes to DNS management, I still prefer Cloudflare because they offer many premium features for free, including SSL/TLS certificates.
3. Choose the right publishing platform
I won’t lie that the whole Jamstack is really appealing to me because static websites are extremely fast and secure. But if you’re not tech-savvy, I still recommend WordPress for its ease of use, strong community, and writing-first approach.
That’s why I opted for WordPress in case of this blog too, even though I run my other blogs exclusively as Jekyll-generated static websites. WordPress is quite simply much easier to use when your only concern is the content of your blog.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
WordPress publishing platform is available in two flavors. Here are the most important differences:
| WordPress.com | WordPress.org |
|---|---|
| publishing service | downloadable software |
| web hosting included | web hosting not included |
| limited plugins and themes | unlimited plugins and themes |
| starting at $4 per month (with custom domain) | free, but web hosting required |
It seems complicated, but I strongly recommend choosing WordPress software running on the hosting of your choice. That’s the best options for most bloggers who wants to have everything under their control.
If for whatever reason you don’t like interface of WordPress, you might check this article where I compared other publishing platforms worth considering.
4. Choose the right web hosting
With your own WordPress installation, you need web hosting, but these days, you don’t need to manually install anything. Most of hosting services offer one-click installer that will do all the heavy lifting for you.
On top of that, the best managed WordPress hosting providers will even set everything up for you so you can just start writing you content.
I’m regularly updating my article about the best web hosting services, so I you want to learn what’s currently available on this huge market, make sure to check it.
Static WordPress
However, there’s another solution, which I’m currently using for this blog. It’s actually a static website written in WordPress and running on Netlify from the code stored in GitHub.
Even though this might sound too techy, the whole setup is quite simple. You need to download a free Simply Static plugin and each time you publish a new post, you just generate a new static version of your whole website.
I’m so excited by this solution mainly because of the amazing speed it delivers for free. Unlike in case of managed hosting, which can be pricy, this solution won’t cost you anything at all, yet it delivers all the power you can imagine.
Go ahead and test this website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights, you should see something like these results:
If you want to learn more about this solution, consider my brand-new online course where I explain the whole setup in few minutes.
5. Select the right theme
You can have the fastest hosting money can buy, but if you choose poorly optimized WordPress theme, you’re asking for trouble.
You can have the fastest hosting money can buy, but if you choose poorly optimized WordPress theme, you're asking for trouble. Click To TweetYou should always prefer speed over fanciness. Great-looking eye-candy magazine-like themes are extremely demanding. They look good, but they load extremely slowly.
Slow website will hurt your rankings, Google will take notice and it will punish you by placing your link at the very bottom of the search results. Users won’t be happy either. If your website is slow, nobody will wait for it to load.
I respect and admire the hard work of Ryan Robinson and Adam Enfroy, two of my favorite internet millionaires who started from nothing and managed to become extremely successful thanks to their blogs.
But their websites are slow and don’t pass the Core Web Vitals, especially mobile versions. These two blogs are however so popular, that this can’t hurt them anymore.
When you just starting out, though, you don’t have this leeway, so please, focus all your effort and energy on speed. To help you with choosing the right theme, I published this article where you can see how different themes perform and pick the one you like the most.
My absolute hero, who I use on this website from day one, is Blocksy theme. It’s faster than both Astra and GeneratePress and offers the best possible customization even in a free version.
6. Install the most important plugins
There are few plugins that you should absolutely install on your new WordPress website to increase its speed and security.
- JetPack – to secure the access to your admin dashboard
- WP Super Cache and Autoptimize – to speed up your website
- Yoast SEO – to write SEO-friendly articles
Of course, you don’t need the first two if you’re running static WordPress.
7. Start creating content
Without interesting content, your website can be the fastest and the prettiest on the planet Earth, and it won’t matter at all.
Here’s a list of articles that should help you started:
- How to Write a Perfect Headline (That Will Capture Attention)
- How to Write a Perfect Blog Post (to Captivate Your Readers)
- How to Write a Perfect About Page (to Impress Your Audience)
Conclusion
Starting a new blog is never easy. In my case, it’s a lot of excitement, especially with my crazy plan to earn $1 Million by blogging in 10 years. You don’t have to be that far-fetched and still grow your blog if you start with the solid foundation.
In this article, I presented you how I plan to start my million-dollar blogging business, but I’m really interested what’s your take on it, so, please, let me know in the comments below.